Rapunzel concept art

Disney Animation has released a new batch of concept art for their next project, RAPUNZEL, due out Christmas 2010. As the pictures are drafted in typical 2-D form, you may think Disney is pulling another PRINCESS AND THE FROG and going all retro for this one as well.

That’s not the case however, as RAPUNZEL is set to use a new kind of CG rendering technique which is supposed to blur the lines between hand-drawn (old-school Disney), 3-D (new-school Pixar) and painting-type imagery (like these concept pieces).

Though I think these shots are pretty striking, I’m still skeptical about the concept of a RAPUNZEL movie as a whole, where the climax of the story is a guy climbing up a girl’s hair, which as you can see below, looks every bit as ridiculous as it sounds. But I suppose if anyone can make an ancient story like this relevant again, it’s Disney.

Extra Tidbit:

In the original Grimm Brothers version of RAPUNZEL, the prince falls off of the tower, is blinded by thorns and Rapunzel ends up knocked up by the end.